I have had carpets in the past and hardwood floors.. I would never go back to carpeting, hardwood floors all the way! However, you mention mahogany.. which is exactly what I had in my previous house we built in 2008. They were beautiful, on the darker side.. but soooooo hard to keep clean, especially for "fussy" housekeepers - which includes myself. They were a lot of work. My current home have 75 yr old floors, which we refinished. They are a medium tone - and today - they are so dirty, but no one except me could tell! They do not show the dirt like the mahogany floors. I think you might regret the hardwood only if you choose a darker color.

..oh, and in the new home we built in 2008 & this old home - hardwood through-out , including bedrooms & closets.

My new home is mainly hardwood. I did put carpet in the bedrooms, as I like the warmth, texture and feel of it in the bedrooms. I did put tile in my baths and tile in my master walk in closet. I LOVE having the tile in my walk-in. It is sooooo easy to keep clean and I just hate carpet in closets. It collects so much dust and dirt and gets grundy looking very quickly. I do have radiant heated floors so the tile is never cold on my feet. I would do tile in my closet agains in a heartbeat.

I have dark hand scraped wood on the lower level, except for the MB and the other bedroom on the first floor~eventually that could change, and go to wood.

The upstairs FR and bedrooms all have carpeting, except bathrooms, and will probably stay as is~ it's nice when the Grands are here since it keeps the noise factor at a halfway decent level. Lol

As much as I love wood, wouldn't want it thru the whole house.

Our 1950s house has hardwoods throughout, including the closets. We recently did a master suite addition, and we went with wood to match the original floors, heated stone floors in the bath, and the same hardwood in the closet which is accessed through the bath.

We have light carpeting in the living room and dark in the master br, hardwood and rugs everywhere else. The cranberry red in the bedroom is beautiful but miserable to keep up, even though only hub and I ever go there. The light oak hardwood in the rest of the house seems invincible to dust and dirt, even in the kitchen. I love it!

I had dark wood floors in my bedroom in my last house...NEVER AGAIN! Absolutely everything shows. I have much better things to do than tend
to floors!

We left carpet in the bedrooms for financial reasons, but I really like having at least one room where I feel comfortable barefoot and where I can do sit ups etc. If you opt for carpet in the closets be very careful to specify that the wood goes far enough into the closet that the carpet doesn't peek out under the doors.

I much prefer hardwood floors throughout. Even if you do carpeting, the closets should have hard flooring. Carpeting in dark (most of he time) closets invites nesting insects.

Hardwood for me also - even in bedrooms. We have tile in kitchen and baths. Love my wood floors and have no plans to ever go back to carpet.

tina

A lot depends on the color of the wood. Darker wood shows dust immediately. Lighter colored wood doesn't show as much. My house has 100 year old pine boards in most of the rooms. They've mellowed to a deep honey color--you can't see the dust on them at all.

I have the wood floors and area rugs--best of both worlds, IMO. I agree that the rugs help to trap the dust, and in my case pet fur. However, due to allergies, there is nothing but the wood floor in my bedroom and closet. I vacuum once a week and Swiffer once a week. There's not a lot of dust anywhere.

It may also depend on where you live. Here, it doesn't get as dusty as when I lived in Boston. And the summer is more dusty, because the windows are open all the time. In the winter, they are closed and the dust seems to diminish.

This is our third house with hardwood floors everywhere (except for tile in bathrooms & laundry). The first 2 houses came that way. This house had carpet in the bedrooms and the first thing we did after closing escrow was to have the hardwood guys show up that day. We couldn't move in for 2 weeks, but well worth not having to live with wall to wall carpet.

IMHO, if money is no object, hardwood floors everywhere always look elegant. Even if they are mostly covered, it's that peek-a-boo, like the perfect 1/2' reveal on a man's suit, that just looks so right.

Because we were using wide plank random widht pine, i didnt want the expense of using it in upstairs bedrooms. I used sisal wall to wall, which to me is almost as good a foil for area rugs as hardwood, both functionally and aesthetically.

As for the cleaning issue, our GC put us up in a rental home while our house was being finished, and it had very dark walnut floors downstairs and upstairs. We had come from a home that was all hardwood floors, and never had an issue. But the dark floors were a total pita, even with twice-weekly housekeeping. I felt you could even SEE dust on the dark walnut.

Another vote for light or medium toned hardwood throughout with area rugs- tile or stone in bathrooms.

If you do decide to do carpet in closets I would only do it over the hardwood, in case you change your mind or the next owner doesn't want carpet.